“A reason for the increase of the down payment is the change of the strategy for First Home program. According to these changes, in the case of apartments built or consolidated more than 5 years ago, the state guarantee was reduced from 50% to 40%. The financing for First Home program is predominantly for homes built or consolidated more than 5 years ago,” ING representatives said.
ING representatives also said that the bank wants to stimulate saving by increasing the down payment.
The government reduced the state guarantees for apartments older than 5 years from 50% to 40%, while, for homes built in the last five years or consolidated in the last 5 years, the state guarantees will remain at 50%, in order to stimulate the acquisition of new homes.
First Home program will have a guarantee budget of RON2.5 billion this year, down by RON440 million compared with 2016.
Since the launch of the program back in 2009, the national guarantee fund granted around 203,783 guarantees for loans, totaling RON17.5 billion, until the end of November.
In January-November, 2016, Romania’s national guarantee fund for SMEs (FNGCIMM) granted 32,747 guarantees under the First Home program, totaling RON3.1 billion.